Recently, I've been bombarded with tools and software from different "gurus" that are being marketed as "lead generation" tools.

Some of the headlines read:

Grab Red Hot Leads

Grab Hungry Leads

Grab Hot Leads By The Truck Load

Powerful Lead Generation Tool

I was thinking about this over breakfast and catching up on some reading. Check out the Wikipedia definition of a "sales lead". The true definition of a sales lead is a person or entity that has expressed an interest in your product or service.

Many of the tools and services being hyped or marketed online today are "prospecting tools".

The line between a lead and a prospect has certainly become blurred and I'm not certain online marketers are making it any easier.

On a lighter note, I was amused this morning to find a post on a popular Internet marketing forum from a company in India that provides web development and Internet marketing services. They were asking for ideas on how to generate leads for their websites. Ironic that an online marketing company is asking for ideas on generating leads when they trying to help customers potentially do the same.

While many tools that are scraping data, compiling it as a "sales lead", there are many services, companies, and software that by definition generate a qualified sales lead according the Wikipedia definition.

What are your thoughts? Has the line between true lead generation and prospecting become blurred? What are your thoughts on lead generation and prospecting online?